Parker 1942 Golden Pearl Vacumatic Pen--Advice Needed

[coinlvr]

Dear Fountain Pen lovers,

 

Please forgive me if my topic might appear out of place for many. I have started to collect recently Parker Vacumatic pens. As an impulse buy, I purchased a Parker Vacumatic Golden Pearl? with the date code 1942. I am not sure if it was worth a buy? It was pricey for my pockets. The pen is 134 mm capped.

 

My niece was complaining about it being an obsolete piece of junk as it has to be restored. He said he would have purchased nice pair of shoes instead of a 120 dollars worth of junk. Can anyone please advise me. I am seriously thinking of returning the the pen after the protest from my family. Thank you so much. I really love the pen and the way it writes when dipped.

 

 

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi,

 

a low to medium priced pair of shoes can't compete with this great celluloid! :-)

 

Keep it and enjoy

Jens

[sanesan]

$120 is pricy for this model and color. A typical unrestored brown parker major might go for $50-60 on ebay. However, your pen does have a less common two tone nib and metal filler which raises the value a bit. It also does look like your pen is in very good condition. I would still say too pricy though.

 

I'm also a little concerned about the blind cap - it looks like the blind cap might be too small? The blind cap to barrel transition should be seemless but it doesn't seem to be that way.

[coinlvr]

Thank you both so much for your input. I like the pen and I want it to be my daily writer. We live once so I might use the pen in my work.

[ngekomo]

I'm not a vacumatic expert but looking at the clip, the nib and filling mechanism, i think your pen is pretty nice, sometime a nice thing could only happen once in a lifetime, and you could always sell it if you found a better pen

[pen lady]

Shoes wear out or go out of style, a restored Vac is a keeper. Enjoy it for many years in good health.

[Joane]

That's a beautiful pen. Congrats! Keep the pen and tell your relatives to buy all the shoes they want. Everyone has their own feelings about what items are important to them and it is courteous to respect others' choices.

[FarmBoy]

Your Pen seems to have an unlikely combination of parts.

 

Pen club tomorrow if you care to bring it for a look see.

[Glenn-SC]

For the price of a very nice bottle of wine you could buy dinner for a family of four.

 

Some people choose the wine and some the diner.

 

Your money and the choice is yours.

 

(IMHO, Tell your nephew to make his own money and buy his own stuff.)

[coinlvr]

Thank you FarmBoy. I was going to come for the Pen Posse today However, I have to work. I will show it to John Strother if he is not busy tomorrow at work.

[DrCodfish]

" I really love the pen and the way it writes when dipped." Nohting more needs be said.

 

Sure you overpaid, we all do this from time to time, especially when just starting out. could have gotten a Bic ball point for less than dollar.

 

Ask your nephew if he really loves his shoes and they way they fit. Get it rebuilt and you will have this pen decades (Hell it's already over 70 years old and still giving love!) You will never sell or otherwise par with this pen.

 

And if your nephew is extremely lucky he may inherit this pen in 60 years when you pass on, by which time he will have spent thousands on shoes which he has used up and thrown away.

[nsalvut]

You know, I remember getting my first fp and my wife threw a fit that I dropped $20 on a Pilot Metropolitan. Within two weeks I bought a $50 Monteverde that wrote like trash. As I was looking for a better pen, I came across the Vacumatics and fell in love. I spent $75 on an unrestored blue 1942 demi and swore I'd never write with another pen. When my wife realized that this was important to me, she stopped giving me such (bleep) for spending so much on "a plastic pen that I could buy at Staples for $3 and get 50 of."

 

Long story short, we've gone to the Baltimore pen show twice and are headed to DC tomorrow for the pen show there as well and while she doesn't understand my love for the pens, she accepts it for what it is.

 

Everyone enjoys their own things and that's what makes life fun. Did you over spend, yeah, but not by that much for the condition of the pen. Nearly perfect plating, a good size and great color, yeah you could've done way worse. Keep the pen, get it working, and enjoy it for another 20+ years. The stories I have from people asking about my Vacs at work and the enjoyment I get from my pens far outweigh the temporary regret of a singular purchase when you realize the pen was worth every cent.